Everyone Else

It's that time when I try and see the films that are ranked high on year-end movie polls that I haven't seen yet. Inevitably they are foreign, and almost always maddeningly slow or obtuse. One such is Everyone Else, a German film directed by Maren Ade. It ranked in the top five of both the Indiewire and Village Voice polls, but I didn't think much of it.

For over two hours we are in the company of a young couple who are vacationing on Sardinia, staying at his family's vacation home. Gitti (Birgit Minichmayr) is an effervescent, fun-loving redhead. Chris (Lars Eidinger), is a sullen, self-absorbed architect. They bicker, make love, try to avoid a meddlesome neighbor, but are unsuccessful, so have dinner with him and his wife. Eventually Gitti comes to her senses and decides to leave him, but the end is ambiguous.

The biggest problem I had with this film was the character of Chris. He is, to put it bluntly, an asshole, and mistreats Gitti at almost every turn. While hiking he leaves her behind, he embarrasses her at the dinner with the neighbors, and he won't tell her he loves her. Aside from his Aryan good looks, it's hard to understand why she puts up with him. The ledger is so far to her side that one wonders if Ade was getting back at an old boyfriend.

I also must admit to not quite getting with the film's languorous style. Unlike American films, which are full of exposition, Everyone Else has hardly any. The film is halfway over before we are told that the couple are on Sardinia. In some ways the film seems to have started somewhere in the middle.

Every year it seems there is a film or two that is rhapsodized over by critics that leaves me cold. Everyone Else is one of them.